What Muppet Fans Are Thinking About

[minor muppetz]

Some time ago, I read somewhere that whenever a Big Bird costume is about to be retired and replaced, they have Big Bird do something that he normally wouldn't do. But the only example I know of is him being in a lake in the Camp Echo Rock episodes. I wonder what else Big Bird has done in such instances that would normally ruin the costume.

And I've been thinking about how when I was a kid, I thought that since the Muppet Workshop was in New York and the Creature Shop was in London (I didn't know at the time that there was an L.A. creature shop, or that The Jim Henson Company had offices in L.A.*), that all Muppet productions were produced in New York and all Creature Shop productions were produced in London. As far as I knew, the only exceptions were if a production took place in a different state or country, though I was aware that The Muppet Show was produced in London. I had no idea that a good portion of Henson projects were shot in Canada (can't remember if I was aware of Canada when I was a kid) as well. And I was surprised when I saw the Tough Pigs interview with John Tartaglia last year and he said that by the time he joined that most Henson productions were being produced in L.A. instead of New York.

*Part of which can be attributed to Jim Henson saying in Secrets of the Muppets, which was made a year before the company opened offices in L.A., that there were two workshops, one in NY and one in London.

 

[minor muppetz]

After seeing that the Brooke Shields and Melissa Manchester episodes had two different promos shot for them, with different original material, I wonder if all TMS promos for specific episodes had two different promos each. I've noticed that some promos had clips from the upcoming episodes while others do not, but if every episode did have two promos, I wouldn't be surprised now if one promo featured clips and the other didn't (as is the case of the two promos mentioned above).

I think it was said in Jim Henson: The Biography that the promos were improvised, but is that the case with all of them? In some, the dialogue and gags seem a bit too specific to have not been planned (both of the Melissa Manchester ones seem that way).

 

[minor muppetz]

One thing I've noticed about the fart shoes in The Muppets: Most of the trailers had it follow Kermit's line about the Muppets not being about cheap tricks, and the writers/director said that the joke is that they did a cheap trick right after Kermit said that.... But in the actual film, it comes after Walter tells Kermit that the Muppets are so talented, which is also funny, while the line about cheap tricks ended the deleted scene where Bunsen and Beaker show that Gonzo's bowling ball was remote controlled. I guess they must have moved the fart shoes further so it would still be in the movie, but after the scene we get a shot of Kermit and Walter giving facial reactions to it.... During the bowling act practice, Kermit was a bit farther away from Walter before going to him before the fart shoes. I wonder if that shot in question was for something else, or if they wanted one of those to scenes to lead to fart shoes without being sure which, or if that little shot was done after it was decided to cut the scene.

In fact there's a number of deleted scenes in the trailers that don't appear on the Blu-ray (outside of the trailers) that I wonder about in regards to whether they were deleted scenes or just shot for the trailer. Like Jason Segel's "wait a minute... are there Muppets in this?" line when they're in the office to get the telethon approved. In the actual movie, Jason Segel doesn't even get any dialogue, so I don't know if they shot something and had him dub over Gary's line for the sake of the trailer, or if they actually did intend for him to ask if Muppets were involved, or if they just shot that for the trailer. And there's those group shots that include Behemoth in the center, opening his mouth to reveal Pepe or a live hand. I wonder if those were meant to be in the movie (they could have easily appeared in an in-film promo for the telethon).

And I've also thought of one scene that's in the trailers that most likely was intended to be part of the movie and just deleted, the scene where Gary says "you know how when you're trying to figure out something and then you find and and you're like, 'duh!'" That's clearly cut from when Gary realizes that he forgot his anniversary.

 

[dwayne1115]

I'm going to say this in the nicest way I can,but you my friend are a very deep thinker.

 

[JimAndFrank]

I finally watched 'The Fantastic Miss Piggy Show' and only one thought came to mind afterwards......

How and why did Steve Whitmire end up being a backup dancer?

I think I know what I'll be asking him if I ever meet him

 

[minor muppetz]

For years I thought about the fact that Bunsen and Beaker seem to have become a bit more major in the early 1990s after the passings of Jim Henson and Richard Hunt which led to Rowlf, Scooter, and most of the Electric Mayhem being reduced to minor roles, wondering if part of that had to do with the fact that they were featured on a semi-regular basis on Muppet Babies (after all, there's many secondary characters not on that show who didn't get promoted to main characters). After all, by then Bunsen and Beaker tended to have smaller roles in movies and specials (though Beaker was given a sub-plot in The Muppets at Walt Disney World). But now I've started thinking.... Did Sam the Eagle become a more major character around 1992 as well?

Before then, Sam always had small roles in the movies and specials. In most of those he typically got one line per scene. Though he did have a major role in Muppet Vision 3D. His scene in The Muppet Christmas Carol was bigger than anything he did in previous movies (and it's pretty much a scene not in other versions of A Christmas Carol, though I guess they'd rather do something like that scene than a scene explaining that Scrooge became unhappy when his sister died, or was that just in A Flintstones Christmas Carol?). Then he had a major role in Muppet Treasure Island, and was given a recurring segment on Muppets Tonight (though his screen time on that show was on par with his screen time on The Muppet Show, but I remember actually being surprised when I saw Sam on the show, not expecting him when Fozzie wasn't even in the first episode). So he never appeared on any original Muppet albums, and his scenes in Muppets from Space aren't exactly different from his usage in the first three movies, but his role in It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie was a little bigger than in the earlier movies, and his cameo in Muppets' Wizard of oz isn't too different from his MCC scene. In fact I remember back in 2002, when Ken Lilly posted a list of characters he considered "big guns", I was surprised to see Sam on that list (instead of being listed as a secondary character). And when Sam was included in the first assortment of Mini Muppets, I was surprised that neither Miss Piggy or Gonzo were included in the set that he was in. He was apparently considered a strong enough character to hold a box set with a few minor characters (though Mahna Mahna is kind of popular), especially since the second wave of minis had Bean Bunny replaced with Fozzie in an effort to get another major character included (I can't speak for Ken or anyone at Palisades, but at the time I considered Bean a "big gun").

There's a few things that got me thinking this today. There's Jim Henson's induction to the television hall of fame which was recently uploaded on YouTube, where Sam was actually included with the small group of Muppet Show characters, which was mainly major characters. And today I learned that the Sam will be included in the new Disney Junior interstitial series. And I was also thinking about how in The Muppets Character Encyclopedia, it says that Sam eventually decided to join the Muppets and play roles in The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island.

 

[Ladywarrior]

I have been wondering for awhile. Is dr. teeth Jay. P. Morgan's favorite muppet? Her guest appearance is the only time he's actually danced with a guest star on the show. Did she specifically ask for it?

 

[Whatnot1988]

After looking at the concept art of Kermit and Piggy's " dream kids" on the Puppet Heap website (http://www.puppetheap.com/#/muppets/), I can't help but be reminded of the TMM Frawley Camera test on the Columbia-Tristar DVD.

On that DVD, there is a segment between Kermit and Piggy where Piggy asks Kermit to look at a hotel (which she views as her dream house) and she mentions someone by the name of Samuel. Kermit asks, "Who's Samuel?" and Piggy responds, "Our First." (Implying their first birth child) I am guessing that the sketch of the pink frog (presumably a male) is probably Samuel. Incidentally, later in that segment Kermit makes a joke about the implication of love-children between him and Piggy, by saying that a cross between a frog and a pig results in a "bouncing baby pig" which is presumably what the green pig is.

Alternately, these "dream kids" could fit under Andy William's definition of "Tiny 'figs.'" Yes, I know continuity is basically nonexistent in the Muppetverse, but these are just random thoughts I had when I saw these images.

 

[Ladywarrior]

Howe was the electric mayhem formed? whose idea was it?

 

[Mo Frackle]

Howe was the electric mayhem formed? whose idea was it?

Animal is the true mastermind behind the band. Eat, sleep, and women? All an act. If it wasn't for Animal, EM would have broken up years ago. Heck, the only reason Dr. Teeth's name is in the band's title is because Animal is so darn modest.